“You
never seemed to be waiting for me, but we kept meeting at every turn in the
path.”

Film ****

In the annals of cinema
history, there have been few films as equal-parts cryptic and ethereal as Alain
Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad (1961). Unlike anything before it or
since, Last Year at Marienbad embraced a boldly avant-garde style of
filmmaking, shattering the restrictive confines of conventional film narrative
and editing. Using a non-linear screenplay scripted by celebrated nouveau
roman novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet, this French film re-imagined the silver
screen as a canvas upon which to paint, the result being a mixture of Seurat-like
neo-impressionism with the cinematic equivalence of Cubism as story narrative.

Last Year at Marienbad
might be described at first glance as a film about a love triangle. After all,
there is a man who has fallen in love with a woman. Perhaps she is married,
perhaps not. They may have met before, one year ago, or perhaps not, and now
they wish to run away together after a year’s separation. Yet, the woman
oscillates undecidedly between complete surrender and reluctant denial, all the
while observed in the background and shadows by a tall, skeletal figure of a man
who may just be her husband or current lover or perhaps something else
entirely. The film does not elucidate on these points but leaves them open to
interpretation. Certainly, nothing of substance is ever revealed about the
background of these three characters, and so it is up to the individual viewer
to draw from personal beliefs or experiences in order to mentally fill in the
narrative gaps in the film’s highly-splintered storyline.

There is an initial meeting
between man and woman, repeated again and again, with small variations each
time. It is as though the protagonist were re-imagining his first encounter
with this woman and unsatisfied with the apparent result, had re-envisioned it
to his greater satisfaction. Yet as more enigmatic details are revealed, the
more desperate and unrelenting the man’s pleas and descriptive visions become;
are his intentions honorable, to rescue this woman from a loveless and stifling
existence, or are they driven by primal desire, the insatiably predatory urge to
possess another man’s woman? Neither does the man’s omniscient voice-over
narration necessarily dictate the corresponding on-screen actions, and the
growing disparity between verbal remembrances and visual re-enactments suggests
an unreliable degree of verisimilitude versus illusion. Truth, in Last Year
at Marienbad, is simply in the eye of the beholder, à la Kurosawa’s
Rashomon.

Incredible as it may seem
today, Last Year at Marienbad was only Alain Resnais’ second feature
film. Previously, he had been known principally for his politically-charged
documentaries, particularly the 1955 film Night and Fog about the
Holocaust. But his debut feature-length film, Hiroshima Mon Amour
(1959), about fated interracial lovers, quickly brought him to the forefront of
the cinematic world. Last Year at Marienbad would then cement Resnais’
reputation as one of the brightest stars of the French New Wave, even if he did
not consider himself technically an auteur along the lines of a François
Truffaut or Jean-Luc Godard.

Certainly in the case of
Last Year at Marienbad, it was another Alain, one Alain Robbe-Grillet, who
could rightfully claim the lion’s share of credit for the film’s screenplay.
Robbe-Grillet was an established author and principal exponent of the nouveau
roman, as 1950’s style of French novelization that emphasized
depersonalization of characterization with a focus on objective description to
advance plot and narrative. Robbe-Grillet successfully found the ciphers
through which to translate his unique literary style into a new cinematic
language, resulting in a film that boldly dared to depart from realism and
formalism. By cinematically adapting the nouveau roman prose ideal of
form over narrative, Last Year at Marienbad would re-write the
“old-fashioned” conventions of film narrative and would prove to be a lasting
example of the French New Wave at the peak of its influence.

Robbe-Grillet was initially
introduced to Resnais through producers Pierre Courau and Raymond Froment and
soon thereafter presented Resnais with four separate treatments for a possible
collaboration. Resnais eventually chose the proposed draft entitled l’année
dernière, which would become the basis for their eventual film together.
Without a doubt, Last Year at Marienbad feels equally an extremely
literary film (thanks to its vast reliance on theatrical voice-overs) and a
richly-visual one (thanks to Resnais’ lyrical camerawork and precisely geometric
mise-en-scène). Certainly, the backdrop and milieu of the film are as
important to the film as any actual characters in the film. In truth, the
actors are more posed props to be arranged than animate characters, and they
exhibit an exaggerated, detached acting style whose stylizations seem almost
surreal. The spa of the wealthy that these characters inhabit thus becomes less
an hedonistic pleasure palace than a galleria of still-life, sepulchral figures
- perhaps an homage to the fixed gestures and rigid poses of the paintings of
Piero della Francesca that Resnais so admired.

Last Year at Marienbad
is meant to occur in an unknown European spa retreat - perhaps Karlstadt or
Marienbad or even Badensalsa (the film was actually shot around various Munich
châteaux and gardens, most notably the Nymphenburg and Schleissheim castles).
Grand balustrades and statues abound amid the baroque architecture. The hotel
guests are like decorative artworks within this domain, not so different from
the multitude of statues which adorn their pleasurable surroundings. But like
those statues, these people are emotionally frozen and indifferent to time or
place; all that remains tangibly “real” are the film’s three main characters.

Of the three main characters,
that of the cosmopolitan Italian lover, as epitomized by Giorgio Albertazzi,
provides the main thrust of the story arc. This character (referred to in the
screenplay as X but on-screen nameless as are the others) offers frequent
voice-over narrations, sometimes poetic, sometimes pragmatic, sometimes
authoritative. His is a voice of confidence, yet X never fully imparts to the
audience his personal conviction in the veracity of his own words. We soon
distrust X’s sincerity. Are his words the musings over a half-remembered truth
or merely pure dream-fantasy, the whimsical flagellations of a mind in
increasingly frustrated sexual desire?

The object of that desire, A,
is portrayed by Delphine Seyrig, who won the role over such notable actresses of
the day as Anouk Aimée. In Seyrig’s character, there is a mixture of innocence
and sensuality, as though the character were not entirely aware of the effect
she has on the men about her. In that regard, she shares a similarity to Louise
Brooks’ immortal seductress in the great Pabst silent masterpiece Pandora’s
Box, one of Resnais’ influences for Last Year at Marienbad.
Certainly, that silent film’s muted eroticism and sense of fated love and
subconscious longing similarly resonates throughout Resnais’ own film as well.
Even Delphine Seyrig’s famous coiffure in the film is but a variation on the
more famous Louise Brooks bob hairstyle.

Last Year at Marienbad’s
third main character, M, the second man (or perhaps husband) is portrayed by
Sacha Pitoëff. He strikes a menacing pose throughout the film, less so for his
actions but rather for his gaunt, starved appearance; his is an observant
character made sinister through silent presence and silhouette. It should be
noted that M is also quite agile with small arms, as demonstrated in his target
practice sessions during the film. Such aggressive displays are an ominous
portent, the threatening shadow of jealousy, retribution, and violence that
hangs loosely over the film. M’s further supremacy in the art of Nim, a game of
chance that is repeatedly played throughout the film, suggests that no matter
the variations in the path taken by X or A, the endgame and thereby the
conclusion always remains as though preordained - the Pitoëff character will
always win, and the Albertazzi character must always lose. The analogy, then,
is that the film itself is not only a mind game between characters and also
between the filmmakers and the audiences, who are challenged to interpret the
film for themselves.

Last Year at Marienbad
is a film about persistence and persuasion. Whether the two lovers, who
presumably met last year at Marienbad, will re-unite and escape hand in hand, or
whether their efforts will be in vain, is left up to the audiences to decide.
Last Year at Marienbad is structured as a jigsaw puzzle, and how we the
audience mentally re-assemble the elements and pieces determines how the story
ends, if indeed it does.

Last Year at Marienbad
is also a film about miscommunication and emotional isolation. A sense of
foreboding dominates the milieu, as though the characters are drifting further
apart and becoming ever withdrawn, uncertain of the truth and uncertain of how
to react. Fantasy sequences mar the characters’ ability to judge between
morality and duty, honor versus desire. Should A run away with X or not?
Should M retaliate in violence or allow the would-be lovers to depart
unhindered? Which outcome is merely imagined and which fully realized?

While the consensus may be
that Last Year at Marienbad is at the very least a love story, there are
hints throughout the film that it conceals at its core a past violent crime of
passion. The story could then be interpreted as the attempts by the woman A to
repress her memories of an unpleasant experience. Robbe-Grillet had originally
intended for a former rape sequence to be at the heart of the discrepancy
between X’s almost stalker-like pursuit of A and her puzzling inability to
remember or acquiesce. In the final film, however, Resnais excised any direct
reference to such a past event one way or another. Yet, one scene of a secret
tryst, in which the woman offers forth her open arms to X in anticipation of an
amorous rapture, directly contrasts another scene in which X seemingly arrives
to force himself upon the frightened woman. That X’s narration grows ever at
odds with A’s executions of them in his mind’s eye suggests defiance or
resistance by A towards X’s swaying; perhaps X has not been entirely truthful in
his recitations for the audience? What again is truth and what is mere fantasy?

Not surprisingly, this
remarkable element of uncertainty permeates the entire substance of this film.
The film’s very unpredictability, even on repeat viewings, in conjunction with
its surreal ambiance and cinematography, creates in Last Year at Marienbad
one of the most disorienting viewing experiences ever for a mainstream film.
There are flashbacks and flashforwards. Paintings throughout the film mirror
the mise-en-scène of the live-action and vice versa. There are
repetitions of images within images - paintings reflected by garden scenes,
actors posed as though in a still-life portrait. The chronological
disorientation is further accentuated by a constant shift in geography -
ever-expansive garden, impossibly long corridors, vast ballrooms whose edges
melt into the distant shadows. Great tension arises from the film’s
disorienting interplay between what may be fantasy or truth and disconcerting
disregard for normal continuity.

Last Year at Marienbad
is a film whose lasting images will haunt the viewer’s waking thoughts long
after the film has actually concluded. The still-evident resonance of this
highly influential film are as wide-spread in the cinematic world, too, as
evident in the horror classic Carnival of Souls, Stanley Kubrick’s The
Shining, or Christopher Nolan’s Memento, for instance. Alain Resnais
never again created as innovative and convention-shattering a film as Last
Year at Marienbad, but on the strength of his first two feature films, he
would go on to a long and productive directorial career that spanned five
decades. Alain Robbe-Grillet also learned a great deal from his collaboration
with Resnais and would, in later years, become a director in his own right.
While neither man would again enjoy such critical success as that for Last
Year at Marienbad, this landmark film remains their greatest lasting
contribution to international cinema and retains its power to intrigue and
enrapture now as when it was first released nearly a half-century ago.

Video *** ½

Last Year at Marienbad
exhibits crisp details and exceptional deep black levels with very few
age-related defects. One very bright scene reveals some vertical scratches, but
overall, for an old black & white film, the video quality is quite good. The
film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and the transfer (from
a 35mm fine-grain master positive) was supervised by Alain Resnais himself.

It should be noted that
Resnais modeled the visual style of this film after the richness and depth of
field clarity of Michelangelo Antonioni films of the time. The usage of real
sets, with long corridors to enhance camera motion and the shadow-play of
moldings and decor within each scene, also brings a visual flair to Last Year
at Marienbad that is quite unforgettable.

Audio ***

There are two listening
options - the original monaural track or a restored monaural track. The
restored track has a deeper tone and more vibrant feel, particularly in the
misterioso-like pipe organ music. However, director Alain Resnais insisted that
the original soundtrack be made available, too, and felt that listeners should
have the option of experiencing Last Year at Marienbad as it was first
heard in theaters, ticks and audio scratches all (the booklet that accompanies
this release includes a note from Resnais to this effect).

BONUS TRIVIA: The film’s
music was composed by Delphine Seyrig’s brother, Francis!

Features ****

This Criterion release of
Last Year at Marienbad is comprised of two discs and a commemorative
booklet. Disc One holds the film as well as a pair of theatrical trailers, one
vintage, the other a re-release version. Both trailers canter to the film’s
cryptic nature and non-linear narrative.

Disc Two offers the bulk of
the supplemental features. First up is an Alain Resnais audio interview (33
min.). Accompanied by numerous production stills, publicity shots, and film
clips, this interview follows the director on a trip down memory lane as he
recalls his collaboration with Robbe-Grillet and his progressive admiration for
Robbe-Grillet’s writing. He further reminiscences upon the production, editing,
and distribution of Last Year at Marienbad and mentions various
influences on the film, including the Mandrake the Magician comics and
Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Resnais also reveals secrets of his directing and
editing techniques.

In the documentary
Unraveling the Enigma: The Making of Marienbad (32 min.), Resnais’ former
collaborators, including the notable German director Volker Schlöndorff (then an
assistant at the time on Marienbad) and production designer Jacques
Saulnier, recall working with Alain Resnais. Of interest here is a script
girl’s graph of the film’s chronology, painstakingly charted out. Secrets are
revealed about the more technical aspects of the cinematography and how some of
the more amazing or seemingly impossible shots were carried out.

In the documentary Ginette
Vincendeau on Last Year at Marienbad (23 min.), film scholar Vincendeau
discusses Resnais’ collaboration with Robbe-Grillet, the film’s themes and
various interpretations, and qualities which make Last Year at Marienbad
such a landmark film.

Disc Two closes out with two
early documentary films by Alain Resnais himself. Made in the mid-1950's, these
documentaries reveal a talented filmmaker on the cusp of international
celebrity, just before the release of Hiroshima, Mon Amour. The first
documentary, Tout la mémoire du monde (1956, 21 min.), focuses on La
bibliothèque nationale in Paris, perusing through the various departments
and multitude of literary treasures in the catalogue of this part-museum,
part-archive French institution. We see some of the meticulous process involved
in cataloging new and old acquisitions. This documentary has some scratches and
age-related defects, but with its stunning black & white cinematography and a
majestic score by Maurice Jarre, what could have been a simple short film about
a library is transformed into something much grander. Imparted with a sense of
historic gravity, Tout la mémoire du monde becomes almost as a prison
suspense-thriller set in the labyrinthine catacombs of archived tomes and
papers.

The second documentary, Le
chant du Styrène (1958, 13 min.), is a short color film about the Pechiney
polystyrene “plastic” factories. We see how polytech objects and utensils of
plastic are created from molds and suction processes, and the result is shown in
a wondrously kaleidoscopic parade of abstract art. It’s pop art to the tune of
Andy Warhol.

Lastly, there is a 44-page
booklet that accompanies this dvd release. Aside from the usual publicity
stills and dvd and film credits, this handsome booklet also contains several
worthwhile articles. “Which Year at Where?” by Mark Polizzotti discusses the
film’s symbolism, influence, and the differing visions for the film between its
two collaborators, Resnais and Robbe-Grillet. “So Close So Far Away” by Alain
Robbe-Grillet is an introduction to his screenplay; it is preceded by a foreword
that mentions his other literary works, including his eventual novelization of
the screenplay. In this article, Robbe-Grillet discusses his collaboration with
Resnais, offers his personal interpretation of the film’s story, and reveals
some of his philosophy on storytelling in general. The third and final article,
“Afterword: The Mythology of Perfect Harmony” by François Thomas, offers
revisions and clarity on the previous Robbe-Grillet article; as always, the
final truth regarding Last Year at Marienbad remains shrouded in
subjectivity and shadows. Lastly, there is a note from Alain Resnais about the
soundtracks as presented on this Criterion release.

Summary:

Last Year at
Marienbad
is the epitome of the art-house film - challenging, difficult to decipher,
multi-layered, and open to vastly differing interpretations. Yet it is
certainly a wondrous film to experience with its lush visuals, dream-like
ambiance, and haunting score. Kudos to Criterion for giving this landmark film
a proper re-release on disc!